Delvers LLC: Adventure Capital

by Blaise Corvin

  Tanushree followed, each footstep banging the floor like a battering ram. The suit felt enormous and a bit cumbersome, but she knew she could learn to control it well. In fact, when she moved, it was easy to forget her arms and legs were even inside at all. What had Henry called the suit? V-death? That was a terrible name. She needed to change—

  “This is my shitty range,” announced Henry. “I didn’t have time to make a good one so this is what we got.” The Asian man gestured around and Tanushree let her gaze wander.

  The room was longer than it was wide, and there was a hardened clay, man-shaped target at the other end. A few low walls ran between the target and where they stood, going all the way up each wall and to the ceiling too. It gave the room a ribbed look. A full wall stood directly ahead of them that spanned half of the width of the room. A hole in the wall and a built in shelf was presumably where weapons could be fired from.

  “I doubled the ventilation to this room and the door behind us can easily be closed and locked in case anything crazy happens. We won’t have that problem, though. Follow me.” Henry led the way to the open side of the room and after passing the wall, he stopped at the first low, stone barrier. “All these little barriers out there are for safety. That’s why they’re on the ceiling and walls too. Should catch any shrapnel in the future.”

  None of that made any sense to Tanushree, but she nodded.

  “Okay, hold your left arm up and point it at the target. Then flip the switch inside the suit near your left elbow,” Henry instructed.

  Tanushree did as she was told, and got her first good look at the top of her left arm. There was a canister of what looked like thick aluminum, and that component was about all that she could identify. When she flipped the switch on her elbow, a small, blue flame appeared in front of the tube sticking out of the device on her arm.

  “That’s your pilot light,” said Henry. “Now to fire the weapon, flip the switch in your suit near the left wrist. Do it just for a second and then flip it back to turn it off.”

  Tanushree was nervous, but she did as instructed. There was a clicking sound and a sudden whoosh as her arm projected a column of flame towards the target. When she flipped the switch back, the flame cut out, but a few spots were still burning on the floor in front of her.

  “What in Creation was that?” she swore.

  “That, my dear Lady Volleyball, is a flamethrower,” said Henry with glee. “I got the idea by studying the local air rifles. Actually, I got a few ideas, but we can talk about that later. Anyway, it wasn’t that hard to put some oil and alcohol in a canister and make a piston. This world has better rubber than Earth, too. I’m not sure that’s possible, but it’s true. It was easy to make a good seal. Did you know that militaries in Ludus use slingshot weapons?”

  “Of course I know that,” said Tanushree absently. She explored the suit with her senses. “What do the other switches do?”

  “The switch in your left shoulder operates the spotlight on your left wrist just behind the nozzle of the flamethrower. The switch in your chest is your chest lamp. The switch in your right shoulder turns on the light in your right shoulder. As for the last switch in your right wrist, hold your arm out first and flip it. Oh, you should probably cut out your pilot light too. It doesn’t use much energy but there’s no point in wasting power.”

  Tanushree turned off the small blue flame on her left arm’s weapon. Then she moved her suit’s right arm out in front of her. With an even mixture of nerves and excitement, she activated the switch. In a blur of motion, a huge blade flicked open from the box on her arm and locked in place with a snap. She narrowed her eyes, looking at the wicked, tapering point before asking, “Is that steel? Blessed steel?”

  “Yeah! Cool, huh?”

  “Where did you find such a thing?” Tanushree was curious. She’d never heard of a blessed steel blade like this one. There was no way that Henry could have used a regular blessed steel short sword blade. There was no tang.

  Henry said, “I’ll show you in a second. First, open the suit up and get out. It’s yours now, by the way. I’m never taking back control. I’m also building a cool, custom glaive for it, too. I’m still finalizing the design.”

  In a daze, the young woman moved just one arm out of her suit and began undoing all the clasps to let herself out. It turned out to be easier that way. As she worked, Henry said, “I didn’t have time to figure out a way for you to easily close this punching blade. I got the idea from the weapon I used to kill that one assassin like a week back or whatever. It’s a pain in the ass to close this thing once you open it, though. It really need someone standing outside the suit to close it right now, so it’s more of a last ditch weapon.”

  Tanushree absently nodded and climbed out of the suit. After she was back on the ground, she looked back at the giant, empty machinery, her new weapon, and felt a sense of loss. It was awesome.

  Henry had handed her a truly astonishing weapon, one that could shake the very bowels of history. “So much more can be done with this too,” she whispered.

  “Yeah, like we could make it a lot bigger, for starters,” chuckled Henry.

  With wide eyes, Tanushree regarded Henry. “What did you say?”

  “Well, you’d probably need a lot more power than you have now to control it, but there’s no reason we couldn’t make something taller than a building for you to pilot. You could probably crush a city by yourself. Just imagine the size of the weapons we could attach to something like that!”

  What kind of mad god is this man? What is in this coffee potion he is drinking? Tanushree’s thoughts were wild. For a bare instant, she imagined herself as a giant, crushing her enemies underfoot. It was too much. She shook her head and began following Henry as he led them out of the range room.

  In that moment, if she did not already have feelings for Aodh, she might have given herself to Henry just to solidify an alliance. One thing was sure, she couldn’t afford not to give him anything he wanted at this point.

  She was in a daze as she followed Henry to another table, this one with a blessed steel nut, bolt, and a couple washers. Blessed steel items like these were still expensive, but more for the novelty than anything else. They weren’t really very useful.

  “I saved these to show you what I figured out two nights ago. Check this out.” Henry put each item on his palm, folded his hand and closed his eyes for a few seconds. Then he opened his hand, and Aodh gasped out loud. On the center of Henry’s palm was a single, blessed steel sphere.

  “I still can’t make the stuff from scratch, but with Mind Whip, I can convince it to join together or move apart. I’m kind of ashamed I never tried to mold it in the past like other metals. I might have been able to. Suppose it’s just because the weapons made out of this stuff are so fucking rare and I didn’t have much to mess with.

  “I think I’m close to figuring out a lot of stuff about blessed steel, actually. Anyway, the iron in the V-death suit came from a couple old blessed iron candlesticks I found in my new house. The blade is from a bunch of random blessed steel I cobbled together.”

  “This is…” Tanushree didn’t have words. Henry could be one of the richest men on Ludus now. This was an amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity. If she joined forces with him, sponsored him somehow, however he wanted; maybe she should attempt to marry him after all. Her heart was against the idea, but he was waving power and wealth around casually in a way that made her mouth dry. She had not been raised to ignore possibilities like this one.

  Henry looked up and the ceiling and nodded. “Oh yeah, I know. This would be an easy way to make cool stuff and sell things, I guess. But I have a really fucking cool plan. I’m not on this fucked up planet to make better weapons for people to kill each other with. I’m thinking bigger than that, way bigger. Here, follow me.”

  He took off, sipping his coffee, patting a leg, and humming as he moved towards the door he had first come out of. Tanushree slowly turned and exchanged looks with Ao
dh. The youth’s expression was similar to hers, but he eventually just shrugged and followed his mentor. His tone was sheepish as he said, “If you spend enough time around him, you eventually kind of get used to this sort of thing.”

  Tanushree and Aodh followed Henry into an office of sorts. A makeshift desk and chair had been crafted from solid stone. “How did you make all of this stuff in such a short amount of time, Henry?” asked Aodh. “You had a hard time with the tunnels back in the Gob-folk caves.”

  Henry nodded. “Yeah, but I realized that I could use Mind Whip to help convince some of the stuff to work with me. The new ability, being personally more powerful, and having my metal magic back has made everything way easier for me. Plus, I figured out I can make glass pretty easily now. There’s plenty of sand, and I understand light magic now so the fake fiber optic lights on the walls were a cinch.”

  Aodh frowned, “What is a mind whip—”

  “This is what I want to build!” crowed Henry, showing Tanushree a crude drawing. At first, she didn’t understand what she was seeing. When she leaned back, her eyes widening a bit, Henry said, “Yeah, I see you get it now. This is a concept drawing. I think I can make everything work really efficiently based on what I know about magic systems now. It should run a long time on basic magic stones, just like the V-death does.”

  Tanushree took a deep breath, calming her racing heart. “And you are sure you can build such a thing?” she asked.

  “Of course. I looked up what kind of stuff the Berber government is using for military vehicles, and this would kick the shit out of all of them, too. Well, eventually.

  “If it works, I can start recreating a lot of earth technology in the future, too. Maybe even Areva or Mo’hali stuff, but I’d need to understand what their technology even looks like first. This shit can be pretty fucking complex. I’m just cheating like a sonofabitch.” The man laughed and drank the rest of his coffee, setting the cup down gently on the stone table.

  With both dread and awe, Tanushree thought of how Henry could change the world, or at least her country with only what he’d created in the last couple days. She felt so deeply shocked, she forgot how to speak for a moment. “What do you want from me?” she asked. Tanushree felt it, the sense of destiny. Her entire world hung on the man’s answer.

  “I need access to your resources. You are not your parents, but you’re still rich and well connected. Your folks kind of pissed me off by not even talking to me and by treating you like shit...so fuck them. I’ll just deal with you. I need you to buy me a bunch of magic stones. I also need every piece of scrap blessed steel you can find. Blessed iron too. Maximize your money and get deals. It obviously doesn’t matter what shape the stuff is in.

  “I also want to build this land up, so get me some carpenters and some other earth mages out here. I need more people to work the land, too, and I don’t have time to build walls. I was thinking about maybe keeping some adventurers on retainer to farm my dungeons, depending on how much they’ll make me.

  “I know you’re supposed to be at school soon, but I’m confident we can spend a few weeks on this stuff, and I can still get you to Mensk with time to spare.”

  Tanushree barely trusted her voice. She was living in a focal point of history. In fact, she was even an active participant. “You will have every scrap of my resources that you need,” she managed to get out. “If it is in my power, all you must do is ask.”

  “Radical! So business partners, then?” Henry said, holding out his hand.

  Tanushree recognized the gesture. It was still used on Ludus. She held out her hand and shook Henry’s, sealing the deal. It was more than she could have dreamed. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but an offer of partnership was surprising to say the least. The partnership did make a certain amount of sense, though. In one fell swoop, her ascension as the Bobrik heir had just been guaranteed. In fact, at this rate, why settle for that?

  If she tied herself to Aodh and Henry, she might truly see the face of the entire world change, and be able to leave her stamp on it as well. She swooned, and only kept from fainting through an effort of will.

  “This is awesome!” yelled Henry. “Sato Industries has officially been born! Now excuse me, I need to make more coffee. I seriously need to figure out where the fuck this stuff comes from, too. I also either need to get Ellen to stay down here, or hire a secretary.” The Delvers leader left the room, heading through another door in the back of the office.

  After a few seconds of pregnant silence in the little room, Aodh muttered, “Like I said, you eventually get used to this stuff, but I don’t think it will ever be normal. If we get to really talk later today, remind me to tell you about ‘grenades’.” The dangerous young man pointed at the bronze cylinder hanging from his belt.

  Tanushree could only shake her head. It was nice to be on a winning team for a change!

  Tense Negotiations

  Henry hummed softly to himself, building channels with his fingers into an aluminum bar. He was getting really, really good at shaping metal and now he could do most menial tasks without even thinking about it.

  Most of his attention was on the floor, or rather, deep in the earth beneath him. He needed some more bronze and probably some iron. Henry concentrated, breaking apart and drawing bronze to the surface. Since he was in his underground workshop, it was easier to do.

  As he worked, he let his mind wander. Perhaps he should clear up the misunderstanding with Tony. A few days before, when he’d shown Volleyball the V-death for the first time, Henry had said that creating his awesome workshop was made possible due to his Mind Whip ability. While that was true, he hadn’t mentioned that there had also been a natural cave. He’d sensed the cave once he’d created the first few feet of hallway, and it had also been why he’d descended so deep in the first place. The existence of the cave had meant he really hadn’t needed to do all that much to widen out his main room. Some of the original cave still existed, too. He’d just walled off the workshop from it.

  Remembering the goblin caves, he’d made the wall extra thick too just in case something was living deeper in there. Surprises were only good when they were female, wore lingerie, and had an accent.

  After a few moments, Henry drew up some bronze through the ground at his feet, turning it into a pool of metal. Even after all this time, it was weird to melt metal with no heat, but he knew he would eventually accept it as commonplace.

  Henry touched a finger to the metal, willing it onto his palm in a ball after summoning strength from the earth to support the weight. He frowned. Creating the vehicle he had promised Tanushree wouldn’t be too difficult. It was creating all the systems and weapons that he wanted to add to it that would be a pain in the ass.

  The Asian man molded the bronze for a while, trying to imagine how the weapon he wanted to build would actually work. The biggest problem was that he was still manipulating metal directly with his hands. He really needed a form. Creating forms out of bronze wouldn’t work well, other metals were too soft, and blessed steel would be a waste of resources.

  Henry pondered the problem, setting down the lump of metal on the ground and drumming his fingers onto his chin. The hair of his goatee was somehow reassuring.

  Currently, he just kind of shaped everything by eye. What he really needed was a way to create quick and easy metal forms. He would be making so many strange new parts that using his magic ‘As Is’ would be inefficient and the pieces might not even work correctly. Speaking of which, he glanced at the box full of blessed steel odds and ends, figuring he should start joining them all together soon.

  He also still needed to figure out if joining together blessed steel affected the temper or the Rockwell hardness…his thoughts trailed off and he felt an itch on his back.

  Absentmindedly, Henry used a new trick he’d learned a few days earlier. With a thought, he created a darksteel gauntlet up to his elbow. Then he formed a long hook of darksteel out of his knuckle. He slotted t
he makeshift tool down the back of his tunic, using it as an improvised back scratcher.

  After he’d dealt with the itch, he held the ad hoc darksteel tool and regarded it thoughtfully. Physical metal could only actually be formed by his hands or by pressure. Steel he generated from his body could make weapons and armor, but he couldn’t get it to form any other tools.

  But what about darksteel?

  Henry cautiously thought about changing his back scratcher into a screwdriver. When the recognizable tool formed out of the strange, smoky, magic metal, his eyes widened in surprise. Next, he concentrated on creating a perfectly uniform tube about two inches in diameter and about a foot long.

  After he thought about it, the darksteel formed a cylinder that perfectly matched his specifications. Henry smiled and picked up the bronze from the floor. He made it into a sheet and gently pressed the darksteel cylinder down, cutting a piece out like a cookie cutter. After experimenting this way for a few minutes, his smile grew wider.

  Now this...this he could work with. Suddenly, the weapon systems he’d been thinking about would be less daunting for him to create.

  Darksteel is cool.

  Henry paused to examine his handiwork around the workshop. He couldn’t stay constantly buzzed on caffeine anymore, but was still getting a lot done. Still, he’d been putting something off for a while and knew he should take a quick break anyway.

  Henry sighed and turned, regarding Honey where she sat in the corner, gnawing on a bone. “Okay, we need to talk,” he said. The tired man gestured down at the ground, a bubble of stone rising so he could sit. From the corner, Honey responded to Henry’s voice by pausing in her chewing, glancing up with wide, curious eyes.

  Henry rolled his eyes. “Cut the bullshit, Honey. I wasn’t sure at first, but I’ve been watching you. I’m not stupid.

  “The goblins are terrified of you, you just happened to show up out of nowhere, well sort of, and you’re way too smart and well-mannered to be a normal animal. I mean, hell, you look like something that should be living in a red and white ball.”